New Delhi, April 2 -- A 35 x 28.25-inch oil painting by Raja Ravi Varma sold for Rs.167.2 crore at the Saffronart spring auction on Wednesday, making it the costliest Indian painting to be sold in an auction till date. Titled Yashoda and Krishna, the work was made by the feted Indian artist in the 1890s and bears his signature. "It shows the immense value of our culture, and the lengths that collectors are willing to go to acquire such a work," Dinesh Vazirani, CEO of Saffronart said after the sale. Vazirani declined to comment on the identity of the buyer. However, Raja Ravi Varma's works are classified as national treasures and are thus non-exportable, making the buyer an Indian collector. "This is a defining moment for the Indian art market. Raja Ravi Varma's Yashoda and Krishna - a universal subject reminiscent as much of Madonna and Christ, or of any mother and child, and arguably the most iconic and desirable work, the Mona Lisa of Indian art - has not only achieved a new world record, it has done so with conviction, more than doubling its lower estimate of Rs.80 crore, exceeding it by Rs.87.2 crore - an increase of over 100%," said Ashish Anand, MD and CEO of DAG (formerly Delhi Art Gallery). Last March, a work by Maqbool Fida Husain sold for a record $13.7 million (approximately Rs.118.7 crore) at a Christie's South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art auction in New York setting the world record for Indian art. The Raja Ravi Varma work sale surpassed the record by Rs.49.2 crore-an increase of over 40%....